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To: John Hunt who wrote (44784)	11/9/1999 1:00:00 PM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 116770

Well, welcome home. Yes, if you are not up with what Bill has been doing & saying, you've missed a bit. And the writings of ole are informative.

To: John Hunt who wrote (44784)	11/9/1999 3:07:00 PM
From: Don S.Boller	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116770

John: # OT #.......nice to see you post again. Tried to email you, but must have incorrectly copied your "address". Best, always. Don

To: John Hunt who wrote (44784)	11/9/1999 5:01:00 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116770

Hi John. Good to hear from you again. How was the fishing. If The USA can do this so can others. Think gold will be even more important. ? Pentagon kept the lid on cyberwar in Kosovo Kosovo: special report Julian Borger in Washington Tuesday November 9, 1999 The Pentagon refrained from unleashing an all-out computer attack on Serbia during the Kosovo conflict because the US was worried about the legal implications of launching the world's first "cyberwar", US defence officials said yesterday. But military analysts said that US generals were equally - if not more - anxious about the potential loss of their technological lead if they showed their hand in a field in which America's enemies could catch up quickly and cheaply. In his appraisal of the Kosovo conflict, the Nato supreme commander in Europe, General Wesley Clark, criticised US strategy and said that more could have been done to "electronically isolate" the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, and perhaps force him into submission without the the bombing campaign. The Pentagon's computer hackers had the theoretical capacity to plunder Mr Milosevic's bank accounts or bring Serbia's financial systems to a halt. But US defence officials said the plans were shelved for fear of committing war crimes. In May 1999, when the Nato aerial campaign was at its height, the Pentagon general counsel office issued a 50-page booklet with guidelines for waging cyberwar, entitled Assessment of International Legal Issues in Information Operations, which the defence department had been working on since "offensive hacking" was first used five years ago in Haiti. The document points out that although it was not clear that information operations (IO) would legally be considered "weapons", the traditional law of war applied to a military cyber attack. Therefore, viruses or logic bombs aimed at civilian targets such as banks and universities could constitute a war crime. In one example, the Pentagon document says: "It might be possible to use computer morphing techniques to create an image of the enemy's chief of state informing his troops that an armistice or ceasefire agreement had been signed. If false, this also would be a war crime.. Martin Libicki, a researcher on cyberwarfare for the Rand Corporation think-tank in Washington, said it was a "little strange" that the US military should shy away from hacking into Serbian bank computers on the grounds of international legality while maintaining an intense bombing campaign against Belgrade and other cities causing collateral civilian casualties. According to Nato estimates, 1,500 civilians were killed as a consequence of the bombing. Some US military analysts say that the Pentagon denials stretch credulity. "One should assume that financial targets were targeted," said John Arquilla, a cyberwar expert at the naval postgraduate school in California. Mr Arquilla and Mr Libicki believe that the Pentagon hacked into Serbian computers to spy, and refrained from causing chaos principally for strategic reasons. While most countries were toying with cyberwar techniques, Mr Libicki said, widespread US use of virtual weapons would probably have accelerated and focused foreign military research. With talented hackers, America's enemies could develop the means to hit back at US computer systems at relatively low cost. "We and our allies are the greatest targets for info-warfare. Do we really want to begin this?" Mr Arquilla asked. The Pentagon legal guidelines also raise the possibility that US use of cyberwar techniques might trigger a global movement aimed at limiting its future use. "If [the techniques] are seen as a revolutionary threat to the security of nations and the welfare of their citizens, it will be much more likely that efforts will be made to restrict or prohibit information operations by legal means," the document warns. newsunlimited.co.uk Cyberwar could spare bombs newsunlimited.co.uk